The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the locations for two new temples — the Kumasi Ghana Temple and the Oslo Norway Temple.
An exterior rendering for the Oslo temple was included in the announcement, published Monday, May 1, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Both temples were announced by President Russell M. Nelson on April 4, 2021, two of the 20 temple locations he announced in the closing session of April 2021 general conference.
Kumasi Ghana Temple
Ghana’s second house of the Lord will be built on a 2.08-acre site at Y11 Suntreso Rd. Bantama, Kumasa, adjacent to an existing meetinghouse. The temple is planned as a two-story building of about 22,750 square feet. An arrival center will also be built.
More than 340 congregations reside in Ghana, composed of some 96,000 Latter-day Saints. Interest there in the Church dates back to the 1960s, when independent congregations were established in hope the Church would organize branches in the country.
In 1978, Church President Spencer W. Kimball received a revelation extending priesthood ordination to all worthy males ages 12 and older, and he directed missionaries to be sent to Ghana. Hundreds of converts, the organization of branches and the establishment of a mission started a period of accelerated growth in Ghana.
Beginning in 1989, the government banned activities of several religious organizations, including the Church of Jesus Christ. Known as “the freeze,” the ban lasted for more than a year, as Ghanaian Saints continued to worship in their homes.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley visited Ghana in 1998 and announced a temple for Ghana, to be located in the capital city of Accra. Dedicated in 2004 by President Hinckley, the Accra Ghana Temple was the first in West Africa and the second on the African continent.
Oslo Norway Temple
The Oslo Norway Temple — the Church’s first house of the Lord in Norway and the fourth in Scandinavia — will be built on an 8-acre site at Smedsvingen and Ravnsborgveien roads in Hvalstad, Norway. It is planned to be a single-story temple of approximately 10,800 square feet, with patron housing and arrival facilities to be included on the site.
Norway is home to more than 4,500 Latter-day Saints in two stakes and 20 congregations. Members in Norway have to travel for temple worship and ordinances to the Copenhagen Denmark and Stockholm Sweden temples, with the latter now closed for renovations.
The first missionaries to Norway arrived in the 1850s; thousands of early converts in the late 1800s joined the Church, with about half migrating to the United States.
